


Hello, Blinding Panic. Nice to See You.

by betheflame



Series: POTS Server Stocking Fills 2019 [8]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst with a Happy Ending, Aunt Natasha Romanov, Canon's There If You Squint, Established Relationship, F/M, Kid Fic, M/M, Original Character(s), Parent Steve Rogers, Parent Tony Stark, Pregnant Natasha Romanov, Protective Bucky Barnes, Protective Steve Rogers, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Uncle Bucky Barnes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-27
Updated: 2020-01-27
Packaged: 2021-02-27 10:35:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,408
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22435738
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/betheflame/pseuds/betheflame
Summary: Natasha Romanov knew fear.And then she saw Steve and Tony's daughter rushed into surgery and realized she'd never truly known it before.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Natasha Romanov, Natasha Romanov & Tony Stark, Steve Rogers & Natasha Romanov, Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Series: POTS Server Stocking Fills 2019 [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1569040
Comments: 18
Kudos: 163
Collections: POTS (18+) Stony Stocking 2019, Tony Stark Bingo 2020





	Hello, Blinding Panic. Nice to See You.

**Author's Note:**

  * For [RoseRose](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RoseRose/gifts).
  * In response to a prompt by [RoseRose](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RoseRose/pseuds/RoseRose) in the [stony_stocking_2019](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/stony_stocking_2019) collection. 



> **Prompt:** c. Found family fluff
> 
> So, my darling Rosie... this one went places. I wanted to do something unique for you, and show Tony and Steve in their best found family light, and this is what came out. I hope you like it!
> 
> _____________  
> TSB Bingo Info:   
> Card Number: 3017  
> Square: S5: "Natasha Romanov"  
> Word Count: 1402

Natasha Romanov knew fear.

She’d stared down hundreds of the world’s evilest humans and shot most of them at point blank range. She was a survivor of the Red Room, managed to be married to Bucky “The Best Way to Handle My PTSD is to Become an Adrenaline Junkie” Barnes for nearly eight years, and had survived all of Clint’s various culinary experimentations, but nothing prepared her for the sheer terror of watching her goddaughter be wheeled into surgery.

When Steve and Tony had put that baby in her arms ten years ago and asked Nat to protect the child, Nat took that vow seriously. She and Samantha Felicity Stark-Rogers had a special bond, which is why Nat had taken Sam on a surprise trip to Belize as a girls weekend getaway. Nat and Bucky had a house there - it had the charm of being mostly beaches and no people, plus Bucky had gotten addicted to spear fishing - and the girls had spent a relaxing weekend reading and doing yoga and taking long walks and generally just being quiet together.

And then on the flight home, Sam turned to Nat, said she didn’t feel good, and promptly threw up all over Nat. Thankfully, they were one of Tony’s quinjets and Nat had the pilot make an emergency landing. So now they were in Greensboro, North Carolina, many miles away from everyone they knew, and her precious Samantha was going to get her appendix out.

The Stark-Rogers … compound? estate?... was always nearly teeming with people. Between Peter, MJ and their kids hanging around, Harley and the students he brought by to learn from Tony, Shuri bringing various Wakandan officials over on diplomatic missions, and all of the Avengers dropping by whenever they so chose, it wasn’t abnormal to have 15 extra people milling around the property.

And that was before you added the four kids Steve and Tony had adopted over the past twelve years.

It was barely controlled chaos and Steve and Tony reveled in it. The two orphans from different centuries had found family in each other and were desperate for everyone to have what they did. Nat was grateful for them and adored each of their children, but Sam? Sam was in a different category. 

_“She’s gonna need you,” Tony said to Nat quietly as they both watched the sleeping kindergartner. “She’s our introvert.”_

_Nat raised a perfectly sculpted eyebrow and ran her hand through Sam’s mop of black curls. “Your husband is an introvert.”_

_“My husband has barely controlled PTSD on a good day and only stops performing when one of us reminds him he’s allowed to,” Tony smiled. “On the days he can settle in his skin as Steve? You’re right and I know they’ll have a special bond, but she’s gonna need an aunt. I can just feel it.”_

_“Okay, futurist, whatever,” Nat responded._

_And as much as it always chaffed her when Tony was right… he was._

Nat placed a hand on her swelling stomach. Sam had taught her so much about being a mother - to the point where the idea no longer filled her with unmitigated panic the way it once had. Nat and Bucky had already asked Sam to be their baby’s special auntie, and the girl was reading up on early childhood development in preparation.

“Ms. Romanov?”

Nat’s head whipped to the nurse’s voice. “Yes?”

“Your niece will be in surgery for about 90 minutes. We think we caught the appendix before it ruptured, but we can’t be fully sure until we’re in there. I’ll be out in about an hour to update you, okay?”

Nat nodded and thanked the nurse. She settled herself into the private waiting area they had shown her to and had just settled down when the door burst open and her three men came tumbling through.

“They just took her back,” Nat replied, keeping her cool because that was her job in their quadrangle. She repeated what the nurses and doctors had told her and reminded them that appendectomies were one of the most routine surgeries anyone performed and that Sam was strong and that she’d be fine.

But she was kidding no one in that room. Steve and Tony clung to each other, whereas Bucky sat next to her and had his hand on her abdomen in no time. They were all quiet for a moment before Tony peered across the room.

“It’s not your fault, Ginger Spice.”

Nat didn’t reply.

She didn’t know how.

Tony repeated himself. “It’s not your fault.”

Steve looked over at her. “Oh, God, Nat?”

Something broke in her and tears started rolling out of her eyes. “I was so scared.”

Later, when Steve asked Tony what the worst part of the ordeal was, Tony would say it was this moment - the moment where the woman who held them all together as though they were feathers cracked.

“Nat,” Steve sighed and pulled her into his giant frame. Bucky held her feet and Tony kissed her head and they let her cry. They knew what a gift she was giving them - even Bucky who saw it more than most, her vulnerability, her pain. He never took her choice to share it for granted.

“Nat, sweetheart,” Tony’s voice was quiet. “This never goes away. This unabashed panic that they might be hurt, the way your body hurts when theirs does… it never goes away.”

“Well, thanks sunshine,” she replied dryly, letting out a hiccup of tears.

He chuckled softly. “Being a parent is letting your heart walk around outside your body. It’s raw and painful and overwhelming and that’s why none of us can do it alone. I’m so grateful she was with you.”

Nat rearranged herself so that she was sitting in Bucky’s lap and staring at the other two men. “She got sick on my watch.”

“Her appendix went septic, Natasha,” Steve rolled his eyes. “She’s a human, not a carefully executed op. You couldn’t have known.”

“I should have-”

“No,” Tony said firmly. “Let me speak from my tower of wisdom on this-”

“Not that not having any would have stopped him,” Steve smiled and Tony rolled his eyes.

“That way lies madness, I promise. You gotta trust your instincts and trust those around you and trust the kid. Sam told you the minute she wasn’t feeling great and you acted on it. You didn’t blow her off or call her dramatic, you immediately took care of her.”

“The vomit was a good indicator she wasn’t bullshitting,” Nat muttered.

“Fair,” Tony replied, kindly. “But still, my point stands.”

“You’re an amazing mom already, Nat,” Steve said, taking her hands in his. “That’s what we’re trying to say.”

Sensing his wife was at her schmoop limit, Bucky changed the subject to the op that he and Steve had just been on, regaling the room with tales of a sentient pile of goo that had been wreaking havoc on a small village in Malawi. They’d let one of the new kids take point and it had gone predictably terribly. Leadership, as they all knew, was a joy sometimes.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity (but was actually exactly the time the nurse had promised), they were informed that Sam was doing wonderfully and they’d gotten everything and caught most of the problem before it had gone too septic. She’d be in the hospital for a few days for observation, but they’d be able to see her in a few hours.

In all her panic, Nat had forgotten that Sam was Tony and Steve’s daughter, somehow, and hadn’t registered the fear they must have been feeling while still holding her together. As soon as the nurse left the room, however, she was reminded when both of them began to cry.

The world went back to its rightful order at that point, with Bucky and Nat comforting the two men, the four of them putting together a plan for the other kids, and eventually shoving all their emotions back into their therapeutically constructed boxes.

Nat was nearly done in again, however, when she overheard Tony listing the names of the family that were allowed in to see Sam.

_“Natasha Romanov, James Barnes - they’re her aunt and uncle.”_

_“Blood relation?”_

_“Does it fucking matter, lady? They’re her family and she’s gonna want to see them.”_

Nat smiled and ran her hand over her abdomen again. “Your family, Olivia, is something else.”

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on [Twitter](http://www.twitter.com/betheflame1) or [Tumblr](http://betheflame.tumblr.com) for more on these yahoos. You can also submit prompts and cajole me into writing faster - it usually works. If you're on Discord, I'm definitely there, too, and probably hanging in the [Stony](https://discord.gg/z5WSqbS) or [Stuckony](https://discord.gg/jtXcc3n) servers.


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